


Altea High School Host Club

by MissIF



Series: The AUs We Never Finished [2]
Category: Ouran High School Host Club - All Media Types, Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Ouran High School Host Club, Gen, Host club AU, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-25
Updated: 2019-01-28
Packaged: 2019-02-20 01:07:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,833
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13135959
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MissIF/pseuds/MissIF
Summary: Keith is forced to join the academy's Host Club, and through the year gains more than just some new friends.





	1. Rough Start at the Club

**Author's Note:**

> Keith is a grumpy commoner with a smart mouth. He's still learning.

Keith already didn’t like the school, the students were all obnoxious and vain rich kids, and the stupid Host Club wasn’t helping. So what if he accidentally broke a vase? Couldn’t they just glue it back together?

“Do I really have to wear this?”

“If you’re going to be a host then yes! You can’t go walking around in those dirty commoner clothes when speaking to our guests!”

His clothes weren’t dirty, they were normal!

Buttoning up the jacket, Keith stepped out of the changing room. “There. Happy now?”

The others were silent for a moment, staring at Keith, before Lance burst into a giant smile, “This is what you look like!? Why did you tell us sooner?!?”

Keith didn’t see the appeal. His own clothes were fine, the school uniform wasn’t that much different. Blue over-jacket with the Altea crest on it, tie, white shirt, dress pants. How was the combination of jack, shirt, and pants so different from what he usually wore??

Lance was still looking at him weirdly, until his eyes dropped to Keith’s arms, “Why are you wearing gloves?”

“I at least want to be wearing something that’s _mine_.”

“You can’t wear those!” his face scrunched up, “that doesn’t match the outfit at all!”

“So?”

“ _So_? What do you mean “so”? You’re not going to get any clients dressed like that!”

“We can fix that,” Shiro and Ryou shared a glance before stepping up to Keith. In a matter of seconds Keith’s sleeves were rolled up, the jacket unbuttoned, tie loosened, and his hair ruffled back. Ryou smiled, “What do you think?”

Not that it was any of Pidge’s business, but she swore she saw a blush on Lance’s cheeks.

Said Club King gave the twins a passive wave, “Better… Not great, but as long as he gets clients I guess… he’s got to get at least a hundred clients to pay off the debt.”

Keith’s teeth clenched at the mention of the debt he owed. How a vase could cost $70,000 was beyond him, but the Host Club wasn’t going to let him go until he payed them back; Lance was the one who backed him up into the stand why wasn’t he paying it?!

An hour later the tables in the music room were filled with young women, some with a host and some without. Keith sat with some girls he recognized from before, when he was forced to show the entire room how to make instant coffee (why were rich people so confused by it?), and they just kept asking questions he didn’t have answers to. Who did his hair? What kind of lotion did he use on his skin? Was he wearing contacts or were his eyes naturally violet? Keith couldn’t answer any of those, he was just like that he told them.

The girls seemed to like that answer.

“That’s amazing,” one of them said. “I didn’t know eyes could be that colour without surgery, they’re wonderful!”

“Thanks,” this was awkward. Keith looked down from the girls’ gazes, he only needed a hundred requests, right? He could handle that. He looked back at the girl who complimented him and returned it, “Your eyes are nice too.” Time to step out of his comfort zone. “I’d trade colours with you, in a heart beat.”

The girls face went red, “Oh… wow. Thank you.”

“You’re fairly new to the Host Club,” one of the other girls said, “right? What’s your family like?”

…that was a tricky subject. No mom, it was just him and his dad who honestly wasn’t home very often because of his job. He wasn’t keen on sharing it, but if it got him more requests…

Over in the middle of the room on a couch, Lance watched the girls fawn over the newest Host. “How is he so popular?”

“Some girls are really into the whole “mysterious bad-boy” type,” said Pidge, looking at her booklet. To the side, Shiro and Ryou nodded.

A small cough caught Lance’s attention, his gaze shifting to the girl sitting next to him, “You haven’t forgotten about me, have you Lance?”

“Of course not, princess,” he settled back onto the couch, “I’m just keeping an eye on our newest Host. He’s still rather fresh to this. Keith! Come here for a minute!”

Keith excused himself from his table, “What?”

“I want to introduce you to one of my regulars, Princess Nyma.”

Keith recognized her. Blonde hair held up by clips, blue eyes, thin face and pale skin; she was the girl who had made a not-so-subtle comment about Keith being a charity case for the Host Club. Ignoring the urge to sneer or flip her off, Keith merely nodded his head, “Nice to meet you.”

Nyma smiled, “You’re from a commoner family, aren’t you? I think it’s amazing you were accepted to Altea Academy, they normally only accept blue bloods.”

“…Thanks…” wow she wasn’t even trying to hide it.

“You should be grateful that Lance is taking you under his wing. He’s such a gentleman so you’ll have no problem learning how to act like the rest of us.”

Keith’s eye twitched, “What’s wrong with how I act?”

Nyma smiled, “I don’t mean to be rude, but you are dressed like a criminal. I don’t know if that’s just how commoners dress these days, but if you’re going to ruin Altea’s good name mocking the uniform like that.”

He wasn’t even the one who dressed himself like this! “Excuse me if-!”

A hand flew over his mouth, “Yes, please excuse him,” Ryou strained a smiled, “Keith does need to get back to his own clients -”

“- they’ve been waiting so patiently, and it would be rude of him to keep them waiting any longer,” Shiro finished the sentence with an equally strained grin. Before Keith could argue the twins dragged him off, leaving Nyma and Lance, who looked a bit shell-shocked, behind.

“Keep it together, man,” said Ryou. “You can’t go snapping at our clients like that.”

“You heard what she was saying!”

Shiro nodded, “That doesn’t excuse it, Keith. If you want to pay off your debt, then you have to restrain yourself from talking back to the customers. Just smile and say thank you.”

“You can complain about them when it’s just us,” the twins let go of him, “but when you’re around the girls try to act more like a gentleman.”

Pretty hard to act like a gentleman when the bitch throws his stuff in the pond. Returning to the music room only to find his backpack bobbing in the courtyard pond wasn’t helping Keith’s mood; having to fish his things out and not being able to find his wallet only worsened it.

“What the hell is her problem?” He wadded through the pond in search of his wallet. It had all his food money in it for the week, he couldn’t lose it on the first day because some dumb brat could accept class differences.

“Need any help?”

Keith glanced over his shoulder to see Lance, the host “king” standing just outside of the pond watching him.

“I’m fine by myself, thanks. Wouldn’t want you to be seen with the charity chase any more than you have to.” Keith looked back to the water and hoped Lance would leave. Instead he heard water splashing, and saw Lance with his pants rolled up, wading through the water.

“I don’t think you’re a charity case, dude,” Lance searched the bottom of the pond, “I think it’s amazing you were able to get into Altea. I know Pidge was coming off as a bit rude when we met, but we all think it’s pretty special that you go here. Ah! This what you’re looking for?”

He held up the wallet, but Keith just stared at him. Why the hell would Lance, one of the most obnoxious rich kids Keith had met at Altea Academy, get himself dirty and wet just to help Keith? Was it a prank? Was Lance trying to psych him out?

“What are you staring at? You’re not falling for me, are you?”

Keith snatched the wallet and elbowed Lance in the process, “Dumbass!”


	2. Beach Fun Horror

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Hosts go to the beach!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This took forever and I wasn't happy when I first posted it so I deleted that and wrapped it up nicely! Please enjoy and leave me a comment!

 “So… why Los Angeles?”

“Because Hunk’s family has a private beach here.”

“Why couldn’t we have go to the Caribbean? Or even Fiji?”

“Lance do you really think a commoner like Keith has a passport?”

“… you know I’m standing right here, right?”

The Host Club had traveled on grounds of vacation, Lance and the twins claiming that because Keith had never been to the beach it was their sacred duty to take him. While it was amazing to see the beach for the first time, it would have been more amazing to have left the club at school. Having to watch Lance sit on a rock and flirt with girls (on a schedule run by Pidge) made him feel weird, seeing Hunk, Allura, and some of the girls do random movements and strike poses was weirder, and watching the rest of the girl’s swoon over the twins as they ran after a volleyball was just plain bizarre.

“Um…” A couple of girls had wandered over to where Keith sat under an umbrella, “Keith? Do you want to go swimming with us?”

Under different circumstances Keith might have said yes, like if they weren’t on Host time and he didn’t have to put on the “mysterious” type part. So, he just shook his head, “Not today, I think.”

“Oh, uh. Then would you mind if we sat here with you?”

“Don’t let me hold you ladies up. You’ve got cute swimsuits on, and the sun is shining, you should enjoy the water as much as possible.”

Keith still didn’t get how any of that was sexy or flirtatious, but the girls seemed to like it. Eventually he moved out of the shade to wander the beach, coming across Hunk and Allura, both holding buckets. Allura, the Host Club’s manager (Keith didn’t understand how a club needed a manager), smiled as he walked close, “Keith! You must come shellfish hunting with me and Hunk!”

“Allura I don’t think there are shellfish on these… beaches…” Something scuttled by his foot and Keith looked down to see dozens of crabs, oysters, urchins, and other shellfish. Keith jumped, startled, “Where the hell did these come from!?”

“Hunks family’s private police force showed up a few minutes ago,” Pidge, appeared out of no where with her head in her notebook, explained. “They wanted to make it up to Shiro for attacking him at the water park. So, they brought shellfish.”

Keith remembered that crazy vacation. Pidge and Ryou had gotten swept away by a current, leading for the club members to go searching for them in the jungle of Hunk’s family’s relaxation park. One thing had lead to another and the police force had gotten a collective butt whooping from the twins. It seemed strange that the officers would bring shellfish as a peace offering, but Keith wasn’t going to complain.

Instead he grabbed his own bucket, “This is going to be the best dinner ever,” and began to collect the crustaceans. He piled his prizes with Allura’s and Hunk’s, a smile beaming on his face. Keith loved shellfish. He always tried to find some shrimp or crab or even mussels at the super market when he could, but they were always so expensive. It was hard to buy with the limited money his uncle provided him with to shop.

Hunk wore his own smile, “Wow. Keith, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you this happy.”

“Why wouldn’t I be?” Keith gestured to the massive pile of shellfish, “This is a major haul of all my favourite foods! Dinner is going to be awesome!”

“Hey Keith,” he turned around to see Lance holding a crab and a smirk on his face, “what do you think about this? Isn’t it… crab-tivating?”

Keith couldn’t even find it in him to hide the laugh, “Yeah. It definitely is.”

Then Lance froze and cried out, several of the girls and hosts screamed “CENTIPEDE!”, and Keith’s smile vanished. Lance held the crab away from him, shaking it and yelling at the same time until Keith simply grabbed the bug and tossed it over a rock.

He flinched as the girls started crowding him, telling him he was “so manly” and “that was so amazing” or it was braze. Keith really couldn’t see how throwing a bug made him a hero. And while the looks the girls were giving him made him uncomfortable, the look Lance was giving him sent a shiver up his spine.

The rest of the day went well until sunset.

Keith had grabbed a bucket and went hunting, hoping to grab some more side dishes for dinner, when someone called his name. Looking up, Keith saw some of the girls standing on a tall rock, “It’s beautiful up here, Keith! The breeze feels incredible!”

“Be careful up there!” he called up to them, “It’s dangerous!”

They looked like they were enjoying the view, until a pair of, supposedly drunk, tourists climbed up the rock. Keith heard the girls tell them to leave, that this was a private beach, but the men didn’t listen; one grabbed a girl’s wrist and the other pulled the last girls into an unwilling hug. Something in Keith set off a wave of hatred. He climbed the rock, and threw his bucket at the head of the first man, “Hey! They told you to leave them alone, jackass!”

The man rubbed his head and glared at Keith, “You little runt.” He charged at Keith, who step sided and stuck out his foot, sending the man off the rock and face first into the sand. Then he felt an arm around his neck and a hand on his shoulder began to pull him towards the edge of the rock. Keith cursed, he’d forgotten about the other guy.

“Hope you can swim!”

Then he was falling, heard a voice call out his name, and hit the water. It hurt, it knocked the air out of him. Someone dove in after him and hooked their arm around his chest, pulling him back up to the surface in a matter of seconds. Keith gasped for breath the moment he broke the water, shocked to see Lance treading beside him with a look of fury on his face. “You stupid jerk.”

He and Lance swam back to shore, the rest of the hosts gathering around them to see if Keith was okay. He assured them he was fine, “I know how to swim, it wasn’t like I was going to drown.”

“Dumbass!” Lance yelled at him. “What the hell were you thinking!? You against _two_ boys by _yourself_? Why didn’t you wait for anyone else?”

“I was the only one who saw it and I wasn’t going to wait around for anyone else while the girls were being assaulted! I was there, I had to do something, it didn’t matter that there were two of them.”

“It didn’t matter?” Lance glared at him, his face tightening up before releasing with a huff, “That’s what you think, is it? Fine. But I’m not speaking to you until you can admit that you’re wrong!”

The rest of the night had gone relatively quiet, Allura had had to send all the girls home with a complimentary bouquet, and each Host was settled into a room in the guest wing of the home. The guest rooms were ridiculously big, in Keith’s opinion, but the bed was amazingly soft and comfortable. He discarded his swim suit and opened his duffle bag in hopes of finding his jeans and t-shirt. No such luck and Keith grimaced.

Thanks a lot, Ulaz.

Sighing in defeat, Keith threw on the clothes and made his way to the dining hall.

“Sorry we couldn’t offer any help, Hunk.”

“It’s alright,” Hunk set down the plates of crab he had steamed. “I don’t want to be rude but the last time you two tried to cook something I had to pull out a fire extinguisher. So, cooking these myself was for the best.”

Ryou and Shiro both sweat-dropped at the mention of their failed cooking attempt. They went back to helping Allura set the table, arranging the butter and steamed vegetables around so they could be easily reached as they waited for the arrival of the others.

Allura glanced over at corner, “You really need to stop sulking, Lance. You shouldn’t have picked a fight with him in the first place.”

Since the Hosts had settled into the mansion Lance had been quiet and situated himself in the corner of the dinning hall, his knees help up to his chest and a wobbly frown on his lips. Pidge almost wanted to criticize him for his behaviour; when she had joined the club, Lance had been overly protective under the guise of seeing her as a little sister/daughter, which she quickly knocked out of him with a well-placed kick. It wasn’t dignifying to see their so-called Host Club King act like a little kid, simply because his new club friend/not-crush had gotten into a little fight.

The doors opened and in walked Keith, an unhappy frown on his face.

Allura took one look at him and her eyes lite up, “Keith that outfit is adorable!”

The others took in the outfit Keith wore: Pidge shot him a surprised look, Hunk’s jaw had dropped, and Ryou stared until Shiro elbow him. Lance looked up from the floor he had been staring at and his jaw dropped. Keith wore what looked like a cross between pyjamas and formal wear, his pants loose and black to resemble dress pants, and his shirt was long enough to reach just past his hips and loose enough to hide his figure. The dress shirt was a deep purple with a grey cutting through the middle, and strips of light blue across the chest.

“Where did you get this?”

“From my step-dad,” Keith frowned, “he’s always trying to get me to wear this kind of stuff.”

Both twins gave him a thumb’s up, “He’s got good taste.”

They all settled down at the table and gave Hunk their thanks before digging in. Keith took a massive plate of crab, and broke into the first leg. Then the next. Then the next. Then the next.

Lance stared at the growing pile of empty crab, “Haven’t you had enough?”

Cracking another two legs, Keith shot Lance a glare, “I thought you weren’t talking to me?”

“I-!” Lance’s face turned red and he looked back at his meal. _Crack_! Lance twitched. _Crack, crack_ , _crack_! Another _crack_ , and Lance had enough, “Why can’t you just admit that you were wrong!? Why do you have to be so stubborn about this? You could have gotten hurt and you don’t care! Why can’t you understand that?!”

The chair nearly fell over as Lance stormed out of the room. The others watched silently, awkwardly looking between the door and Keith.

Said Host continued to glare at the door before dropping to his plate, “Why the hell is he so hung up on this?”

Ryou and Shiro looked at each other. “We know you were acting admirably, Keith,” started Shiro. “But we were all pretty worried for you when you started fighting those two boys.”

“Why? I took down one of them pretty easily.”

“You could have gotten hurt,” said Hunk.

“But I didn’t.”

Everyone’s face deflated in defeat save Pidge, who sighed and leaned her head on her arm, “You dense idiot. We were worried because you’re our friend.”

Keith stared at her, then looked to his plate. That made sense, now that he thought about it. If it had been Pidge up on that rock, he would have been scared for her. He probably would have been furious like Lance was with him now. It just hadn’t occurred to him; he’d never had close friends and wasn’t great with people to begin with.

“I’m sorry,” he told them all. “I’ve never really had friends close enough to care, so I didn’t realise…”

Someone grabbed his arm and pulled him into a hug, Keith’s eyes widening in surprise as Hunk held him, “We forgive you man!” Shiro and Ryou joined the hug “You’re so cute, of course we forgive you.” Then Allura joined in, holding Pidge close around her next as Pidge continued to eat a crab. It felt nice. Warm and heavy on Keith’s body, like whenever his dads pulled him into a rare hug before they left. Normally he wasn’t one for touching, but this was… okay it was actually getting grossly uncomfortable… like barfy gross…

“I think I’m going to be sick…”

Ten minutes and one amazing meal gone to waste later, Keith whipped his mouth and exited the bathroom. Serves him right, he supposed, for eating what was probably a pound and a half of crab legs. He’d been in such a hurry to get to a bathroom he didn’t even know which room he ended up in. So, Keith opened the door and started to apologise to whoever’s room he had barged into.

“Sorry for just running into… your…”

Crap. He was in Lance’s room. Shit.

Keith took a deep breath, “Look, I’m sorry I made you worry about me.”

Rain began to fall outside, hitting the window and creating a pitter-patter sound as it hit the window. Lance didn’t look too happy, but he stood up from the bed and crossed his arms.

“I’m glad to hear that,” he said. The frown on Lance’s lips wavered, “It was a pretty stupid thing to do, so I’m happy that you’ve finally realised that.”

“I didn’t say it was stupid.”

“It was and you know it! … but thanks for apologising.”

Something rumbled in the distance, “No problem.” Keith felt his hair stand up, and lightning cracked. He bit back a yelp, his shoulders hunching up and his fists clenching as he shook.

“Keith?” asked Lance. “You okay?”

Another strike of that _awful_ noise set Keith’s teeth on edge and he flinched, his arms snapping up to hold himself. It wasn’t like when his dad held him, but it was close enough.

“Are you scared of thunderstorms?”

He immediately glared at Lance, “I’m not scared!”, another _crack_ and yelp, and Keith’s hand snatched Lance’s shirt. “I…”

Lance’s arms wrapped around him and held him still as another crack of lightning sounded. “It’s okay if you are,” he told Keith. “Everyone’s scared of something… and I might have something that can help.”

He set Keith down on the bed and ran around the room, grabbing what he needed before returning to Keith. “See? With the blindfold on you can’t see anything and the headphones muffle any sound.”

Keith couldn’t understand what Lance was saying. He couldn’t even see him, and whatever Lance might be saying sounded like muffled garbage… It worked! “Yeah, you’re right!”

“You nasty pervert.”

Lance’s head spun around to the door where Ryou and Shiro stood with disgusted looks on their faces. “I- It’s not what you think! I’m trying to help him!”

Shiro stared at him, “Help him how?” followed by Ryou “Live out your sick fantasies?”

“No! Of course not! I’m not like that! I’m just helping him because he’s scared of the storm!”

The twins did not look convinced and while Lance spent the rest of the storm trying to convince Shiro and Ryou that he was, in fact, not a pervert, Keith happily sat on the bed and road out a quiet storm.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Keith's super cute outfit is my own creation of a cute pyjama set and formal wear, and the shirt resembles his BoM uniform. And yes, Keith does do the Studio Ghibli hair floof.
> 
> Lance means well but Shiro and Ryou's timing is terrible. A bit about Keith's fear of lightning storms, it's not the actual storm Keith's afraid of it's being alone during them. It's been established in canon that Keith doesn't deal with abandonment well, it's what he's afraid of because his mom (and dad possibly) left him. In this AU his dads never left him, but the fear of abandonment is still there and escalated when he was little and lightning storms happened.
> 
> Bad storms can scare kids, and while they do frighten Keith, being alone during them scares him more.
> 
> Lance is also Keith's rock in this au and on the show (when Keith acts as the head of voltron) and he doesn't want to see Keith genuinely terrified unless he can be there to help him.


	3. Home Invasion

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! I'm not dead! This AU still exists! It got an update!

“I feel like this is a serious violation of privacy.”

“How do you even know-” “-where he lives?”

“Pidge gave me his address.”

“Only because you wouldn’t stop freaking out over a dream you had.”

“I just want to make sure he isn’t living in poverty, okay!?”

“Lance, how could he have gotten into my father’s school if he didn’t have the money to apply for the scholarship?”

“I don’t know! I just want to make sure he’s okay!”

The Hosts and Allura combed the street until reaching the addressed town house. It wasn’t a bad home: black tiled roof, brick walls and a small fence around the little garden pressed against the wall. At least it wasn’t the cardboard hovel Lance had dreamed. Some strangers stopped to stare, looking between the car they had arrived in and the Hosts. Allura heard some of them wonder who they were, their ideas ranging from supermodels to movie stars (which was just ridiculous [as if movie stars would show up in a Chrysler 300 instead of a stretch limousine]), when something hit the back of Lance’s head and sent him stumbling towards the pavement.

Hunk caught him of course, and Ryou and Shiro turned to see where the UFO had come from. “He looks fine to me.”

Behind them was Keith, huffing in red-faced anger, holding a shopping bag in one hand while the other was outstretched, having just thrown something at Lance. “What the hell are you all doing here?”

Lance pulled himself upright, “We, uh, were just in the neighborhood and wanted to stop by…” he glanced down, “Did you throw an eggplant at me!?”

As if to answer, Keith strode past Lance, picked up the vegetable, and moved to the first step on the short stair case, “Don’t you guys have anything else to do? Besides bother me on the weekend?”

The Hosts looked among themselves before shaking their heads.

Allura forced a stressed smile. “We’re sorry this is on such short notice. We were just very curious to see how our newest club addition was living. Its not every day a commoner gets accepted into Altea Academy. Lance in particular was curious to see how you were fairing.”

Keith shot Lance an annoyed glare as he fished out his key from his pocket. He could tell them to fuck off, they really didn’t have any business nosing around his home. But if his dads found out that he pushed away visitors (again) Keith would be put through another hour-long lecture about courtesy.

He sighed, “Fine. Come on in.”

Keith’s house was small but comfortable. The stair case to the second floor lay in front of the front door against the wall, and the hallway leading to the kitchen and a living room branching off to the side. The coat-rack at the side of the door was piled with jackets and particularly heavy looking vests. The hardwood floor was well kept, and there weren’t many pictures or decorations on the walls until the hosts reached the living room. A small T.V. was pushed to the side of the room, a short fireplace was installed in the center of the wall, some knickknacks lining the shelf above it, and a couch and love-seat and a coffee table set in the middle of the room. Random pieces of clothing were thrown over the couch, a basket full of clothes lay in the corner, and folders and papers were stacked on the table next to a note pad and pen.

“What a dump,” muttered Ryou seconds before Shiro smacked him upside the head.

Keith ignored the comment. “You can hang out in the living room, I’ll get some drinks.”

They situated themselves around the living room, Pidge and Allura and Shiro all grabbing a spot on a couch while Hunk looked over at the paper pile, and Lance and Ryou looked around the room. The photos on the shelf were family oriented, framed pictures of Keith and what might be his dad and step-dad, a picture of a woman and a man dancing in wedding attire. Lance had to chock back an “aww” at one photo he held, depicting a five-year-old Keith in footie red lion pajamas in the arms of a woman with black and pink hair, when Keith walked in with some glasses of lemonade.

It was that moment that Hunk decided to nearly run into Keith, holding a picture and his face ashen, “Why do you have pictures of dead people!?”

Keith glanced at the picture before snatching it out of Hunk’s hand. “Stop touching my step-dad’s things.”

“Why does your dad have pictures of dead bodies?” Lance asked as he shuffled through a handful of printed pictures. Ryou and Shiro, having their interested peaked, looked over his shoulder, their faces a mix of horror and confusion.

“He’s the medical examiner for the police. And these aren’t actual bodies, just digital models.” Keith gathered the papers and pictures in his arms, then stashed them in the corner of the room. “Stop touching his stuff.”

The hosts settled back down around the room, grabbing a lemonade as they sat down.

“I didn’t know your family worked for the police,” Allura swirled her lemonade. “What does your father do?”

Keith shrugged, “He’s a cop.”

Shiro took a sip of his lemonade, “Both your parents work on the force?”

“Yeah. That’s how they met and, apparently, my mom was a detective on the same squad as my dad.”

The story was sweet, if unexpected from someone as secretive as Keith. Not unwelcome, but the information did prompt a question in Pidges mind. One specifically about the photo about the dancing couple. “Is that your mom?”

Keith looked to the picture she had pointed at and nodded, “Yeah. Dad says that’s from her and my father’s wedding day.”

“That’s your dad?”

“No,” Keith pointed at a picture of another man with wolverine-like hair and sideburns, “that’s my dad.” He pointed to the wedding, “That’s my mother and father. My biological parents.”

Pidge’s, and the others’, mouth formed an ‘O’ shape in understanding. Keith gathered their empty glasses back onto the tray and left for the kitchen, several hosts following after him much to his annoyance. It was a small room with a refrigerator and a couple overhead cupboards, an over and stove, and a rack with large kitchen utensils hanging over the sink. Hunk moved over to the fridge, “What do you have for lunch?”

Keith shot him a glare, “I was going to make myself a can of soup. You can find yourselves something.”

“Canned soup!?” A look of disgust crossed Hunk’s face, “You can’t have canned soup for lunch! Everything in a can is full of aluminum and lacks the delicious tastes of fresh food that the human body craves!”

“Well I can’t make anything other than that so what do you suggest?”

Lance got a gleam in his eye, “How about you show us around a commoner’s supermarket? None of us have ever been and I bet Hunk would love to see what kind of ingredients commoner’s shop for!”

The nodding from Hunk and the pleading look in everyone’s eye broke Keith’s denial, “Fine. Just let me grab the grocery list.”

Hunk and Allura cheered with the twins and raced out the door, Shiro grabbing Pidge along the way, leaving Keith and Lance alone in the living room. Keith searched for his list while Lance hung back, his eyes glancing back to the pictures on the shelf.

“You have your mother’s eyes,” he commented.

“Dad likes to say I got my best qualities from her. I barely knew her, so I really don’t know.”

“…I’m sorry if that struck a cord.”

“Nah, you’re fine.”

“Do you need some help finding the list? Here,” Lance stepped into the living room, “I can-!” and slipped on a piece of paper. A sudden yelp from Keith, along with a scream from Lance, and they fell to the floor with a hard _thud_!

Aside from hitting his knee on the hardwood Lance felt relatively fine. Until he noticed what/who he landed on. Keith groaned, and his eyes fluttered open in a daze, the violet iris’ peering up at Lance.

Lance really hoped he wasn’t blushing, “You okay?”

“I’m fine… but you’re kind of heavy.”

The sound of a door closing was followed by “Keith, I’m home” and the sound of a bag being dropped as footsteps ceased. As slowly as he dared, Lance looked towards the hallway, and froze. It was a cop, a cop with a badge on his chest and a gun on his hip and a _very_ displeased look on his face directed at Lance.

“Hey dad.”

As fast as he could Lance jumped off Keith and stood as straight as he could, keeping his eyes (and hands) off Keith as the cop walked into the living room and totally ignored Lance’s existed.

The cop smiled at Keith and ruffled his hair, “Day go well? You’re home early from the shop.”

“It was a slow day.” Keith shrugged. “Antok let me go early.”

Lance slid as quietly as he could towards the hallway, noticing the twins, Pidge, Hunk, and Allura all standing by watching Keith and his dad.

“Hmm, of course he did. And these wouldn’t happen to be your friends from school in the hallway?”

Every one of them twitch at the sudden acknowledgement. Shiro and Ryou were the first to react.

“It’s nice to meet you, sir.” They pushed past Lance and smiled.

Mr. Keith’s Dad nodded back, “You must be the Shirogane brothers. Keith’s told me about you.” He looked at the others. “You must be Pidge, Hunk and of course, Allura. It’s nice to finally meet you all.” His eyes focused on Lance, who tried not to jump. “And that makes you Lance. You must be pretty close to my son to have been pinning him to the floor of my living room.”

Lance’s face heated up so fast he must have had steam coming out of his ears. Keith turned red and barked at the man, “Dad!”, while the cop continued to stare/kill Lance with his eyes. Lance, for his part, shook his head and waved his hands innocently.

“I-It-It wasn’t like that! I swear! I tripped, it was an accident I promise! Nothing happened!”

“Nothing yet.” He heard Ryou whisper, followed by a snicker. Lance swore he was going to kill the twins.

Keith, still beet red, smacked his dad’s arm. Mr. Cop didn’t look fazed at all. “He tripped on all your and Ulaz’s stupid papers. Nothing happened. We were going to go get lunch and that’s all.”

“Well why didn’t you say so?” Keith’s dad smiled, suddenly very friendly. “I bought some vegetables and rice and salmon yesterday and was looking forward to a nice homemade lunch. Why don’t your friends stay here and eat? That way I can get to know them.”

The hosts were then forced, or at least Lance and Keith were, to sit at the table and eat lunch with Keith’s dad. Keith and Lance had to sit on either side of him, keeping their heads down as they (barely) ate, all while the others ate and talked oh so easily with their host.

It was horrible.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not sure when I'll be able to update again. There's a reason this is part of my WNV series. Hopefully I will be able to finish this, but no promises.


End file.
